MRA holds public rallies in the South and North
MRA recently conducted public rallies in the Southern and Northern regions of the country. The rallies were aimed at sensitizing communities around border areas from engaging in smuggling, conveying smuggled goods and supporting or providing shelter to smugglers.
MRA also tipped the people on how to report suspected cases of smuggling by using the Authority’s Tip Offs Anonymous Service and the MRA informant scheme in order to win a reward.
In the South, the meetings were held at Chiponde, Idrussi, Mbaluku, Makanjira, Majoni, Katuli, Malindi and Mangochi Boma. Other public rallies were conducted at Mqocha, Jenda, Mbalachanda, Mbilima, Kaporo, Pusi and Mwazisi in the Northern region.
The Authority conducted the public rallies after realizing that many unscrupulous traders were smuggling goods into the country like cooking oil, sports bicycles, soap, wheat flour, cement and motor vehicles.
Addressing a crowd that gathered at Chiponde, the Station Manager, Andrew Mbewe, asked people in the area to desist from smuggling as such a propensity leads to low revenue collection.
“If people smuggle goods, MRA will not collect much revenue and it would be difficult for the Government to provide adequate social services and also implement various development projects in our areas,” he said.
Mbewe then encouraged the people to use the informant schemes available to report smugglers and ensure that the Government collects more and meet the aspirations and wish of the citizenry.
“Listen, heavy fines await those who break the law because they are enemies of progress,” he warned, thanking chiefs in the area for supporting MRA to curtail smuggling.
In their turn, Henry Mchazime and Virginia Luwanda from Blantyre informed the communities that the Authority last year paid out over K45 million as rewards to successful informants and urged the people to use the informant schemes to cordon off smugglers from using their areas as conduits for smuggling.
Hundreds of people attended the public rallies and asked a lot of questions which the MRA team professionally answered.
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